Creating the Future with Microsoft and WCI

"For me, Business Transformation provides one of the best opportunities we have ever had to organize our business so that we can truly deliver a great, ‘One Microsoft’ experience for our customers and partners, while simplifying our own business processes to make it easy and natural for our staff to work together cross-company. Its win-win all round!” Neil Holloway, Microsoft

Microsoft; who hasn’t heard of them? A multi-billion dollar global software organisation who lead the world in software development. A values led entrepreneurial organisation who truly believe in their people.

Maintaining growth and leadership in a moving marketplace
In the changing times of the last two decades, Microsoft continues to grow. New opportunities for growth and service are opening up. Microsoft’s mission is to provide an ever-better experience for their Customers and Partners – so that all stakeholders see and feel a ‘One Microsoft’ experience everywhere.

Achieving a ‘One Microsoft’ demands the consistency of a single organisational blueprint, all around the world. It means working together in new and better ways. And it needs everyone in the right job and able to realise their true potential.

One of Microsoft’s key priorities for 2003 was the global Business Transformation initiative which aimed to:

    Create ‘One Microsoft’ in the eyes of their Customers, Partners and Employees.

    Position the company for the next wave of growth.

Transformation structure and objectives
Under the overall leadership of Steve Harvey (Director of People & Culture – Microsoft UK Ltd), the transformation was implemented in the UK sub through four work streams:
 
1.     Momentum, designed to bring about the new alignment of the Small/Mid-Market Solutions/Partners (SMS&P) organisation

2.     SHAPE, charged with building a world-class Business Marketing Organisation (BMO)

3.     Business Management, which implemented better, leaner more predictable business processes

4. Services Organisational Alignment Roll out (SOAR), which installed professional systems of decision-making and accountability, and established measures to raise the Customer Partner Experience index, financial performance and employee morale.

To ensure a seamless transition, these four work streams were enabled and supported by two further streams:

1. Communications, which ensured appropriate awareness for UK internal people on the Business Transformation project.

2. People & Leadership, ensured the staffing of new roles and maintained trust and performance of all employees impacted by the changes.

Being a dynamic business, Microsoft decided to implement this organisational change within the aggressive time frame of 3 months; with the added challenge that it was to be completely implemented within their Q4 and be ready to run by the 1st day of their new financial year.

The main reason for using WCI was to keep their own people focused on generating revenue and to make sure their people could continue to focus on their Customer needs throughout the transition period.

WCI could effect rapid process change whilst ensuring a consistent and seamless transfer to allow for employees to be up and running on day one of their new financial year.

WCI are experts in process implementation, and have had a strong relationship with Microsoft for over ten years. This relationship has spanned consulting projects from Supply Chain Re-engineering to Sales Effectiveness, as well as Gold Partnerships in Enterprise and E-Commerce.

Approach proposed by consultants

How innovative was it?
Application of management skills / knowledge

The aim of the approach was to keep Microsoft’s people engaged throughout the transformation process – aiding the retention of internal talent.

The Communications stream worked with and enabled the four other business transformation streams (Business Management, Momentum, SHAPE, Services Organisational Alignment Roll Out - SOAR).

Its goal was to share the new vision and help people move successfully through the transformation of the business to the goal of ‘One Microsoft’.

In addition, communications were also key to ensuring that the transformation was seamless to their Partners and Customers and that there was close integration between Corp and EMEA.

Communicating through a variety of channels and innovative media, Microsoft and WCI provided people with excellent input opportunities through a variety of two-way processes. Co-ordinating activities, this assured consistent messaging across all channels and Business Groups.

The overall aim was that everyone had an awareness of Business Transformation and that they had an understanding why the change was essential in order for the business to catch the next wave of growth.

How Communications supported Business Transformation
Acknowledging the importance of two way communications, a two way feedback process was at the heart of the communications plan. Fantastic opportunities including – ‘unplugged’ sessions with the Exec answering any questions asked; video links; Q and A on the intranet with guaranteed 48 hour response followed the stated values of openness and honesty.

A mix of both personal and mass communication tools were used whilst ensuring that the messages given were meaningful for the audience involved and were not simply ‘broad brushed’. Consistent messages were given out from both local senior management and transformation leaders, ensuring that people were aware of the transformation and what it specifically meant for them.

Appealing to the more reflective learner, throughout the transformation, people could find out at any time what they needed to know about the changes, by accessing the specially designed and implemented intranet site.

The site housed up to date content on all Transformation news, an FAQ area and a ‘what’s in it for me?’ page where the content was specifically tailored for each business area.

In order that the success of these activities could be measured and that the ‘feeling and understanding’ of the business could be gauged a communications dashboard was implemented. The key measures were: hits to the site, number of questions received via the intranet, number of soapbox votes and percentage of positive votes received.

In addition an audience ‘temperature check’ was carried out on a sample of the organization in order to gain a view on people attitudes towards the Transformation and to build a view of their understanding.

Benefits of Success
1.    Consistent messaging with two-way information exchange transmitted global values, reinforcing 'One Microsoft'
2.    The rich communication mix generated outstanding understanding of the rationale, goals, strategy and business impact of the transformation. It helped Microsoft retain their great internal talent
3.    Open and honest information exchange produced strong buy-in to Business Transformation project
4.    People stayed engaged and motivated right through the transformation allowing a continued focus on business deliverables
5.    The success of internal communications enabled Microsoft’s people to keep the transformation seamless for Customers and Partners.

The WCI team also were also key to the risk management and integration of the streams. Tight integration was a must as there were many points of contact between WCI and Microsoft. Being a fast moving organisation, their time is at a premium. Understanding that wherever possible WCI needed to take the pressure off Microsoft’s time constraints, there were daily ‘round table’ 20 minute sessions to ensure each project member was aware of the teams’ activities and any integration points. This avoided potential duplication in client meetings and eased the Consulting experience for Microsoft. Once a week the team would hold an evening meeting where an in-depth ‘spotlight’ on one the project streams would help not only develop a deeper understanding of the stream between the team but would also act as a forum for developing best practice and brainstorming other potential solutions.

Success factors and challenges

How were challenges overcome?
What were the quantifiable outcomes / results?
What were the intangible benefits?

A seamless transformation
The paramount driver of evolution for Microsoft as an organization is the continual improvement of the Customer and Partner Experience. In order to achieve the vision of ‘One Microsoft’ changes to the organisation needed to be made. However, one of the main challenges was that the Business Transformation implementation had to appear seamless to their Customers and Partners, whilst at the same time cause as little disruption as possible to their people, so that they could continue to meet present objectives and commitments.

The Communications and the People and Leadership streams succeeded in keeping up morale, momentum and performance during the changes. Individuals were able to continue to focus, confident that they were informed of the changes.

As the organisational blueprint was implemented, integration between the streams kept everyone aligned, leveraging expertise and enabling issues to be identified and resolved quickly.

Further challenges included the timescale, not only the 3 month issue but also the fact that much of the change was driven by Corp so the goalposts could move at any time. Microsoft people are time poor and so it was vital that WCI did not over utilise anybody’s valuable time.

Realising the benefits
Working with Microsoft through this transformation enabled them to reach and service their customers better than ever before in specific ways. Some of the tangible benefits they are seeing are:

Accountability
The new reporting lines and systems, together with common and compatible goals, drive accountability ever deeper into the organisation, enabling people to take decisions or to get quickly to where a decision is best made. People now have the strongest incentives to work closely together, share information and ideas, and maximize innovation.

Decision-Making
A transparent framework and consistent linkages between Business Groups together with clearly identified roles and responsibilities has streamlined and rationalised the making of key business decisions. Better, quicker decision-making leaves more time and energy for customer-facing activity.

Consistent Organization, Consistent New Roles and Responsibilities
The consistent organisational blueprint that now applies to Microsoft across the globe enhances alignment and shared understanding. Whether you are inside or outside the organisation, the experience of working or interacting with them is the same everywhere, structured in the same way, following the same models – the seamless, ‘One Microsoft’ experience.

Each Business Group (BG) has a Lead responsible for the long term success of its commercial business. The BG Leads work together in a new Business Marketing Organisation (BMO). Through the BG Leads, each Business Group now has clear, end to end accountability for its own financial performance. At the same time, the General Manager’s role has broadened and changed in emphasis, towards the Customer Partner Experience, people and image.

Go to Market Campaign Process
A consistent annual approach to identify, evaluate and develop Go to Markets (GTMs). Scope of the process would include how customer and partner pain points are captured and prioritized, how GTM plays are then defined and validated, and how operational plans are built around GTMs and communicated to the field for local planning.

Business Update Process
Business updates will be based on common “core” content presented in a consistent format and taxonomy to drive efficient business performance discussions across Business Groups (BGs), Field and Corporate.

Budgeting & Planning Process
A consistent and well orchestrated top-down approach to how Microsoft sets targets and priorities for the next fiscal year and how they measure their business on a monthly basis by looking both at customer segment and at business group performance.

Governance
Governance is the processes and forums that define how the commercial subsidiary, MSN, Home Entertainment Division and corporate representatives align.

The client / consultant relationship

How did this work?
Client testimonials

“By connecting and aligning our marketing to broad company objectives, the new Business Marketing Organisation will help us to achieve our mission of ‘inspiring customer to realize their potential with Microsoft technologies’ through better business orchestration, broad customer connection and the delivery of consistent, ‘best in class’ marketing.” Nick Barley, Microsoft

This relationship between Microsoft and WCI has been working well and growing for many years. One of the reasons for this has been WCI’s approach. WCI work with the client and behind the scenes rather than dictating. And Microsoft enjoy the experience! For this project WCI introduced a buddying system, each WCI consultant to a Microsoft client.

WCI matched their skills to the stream; for example an HR expert with many years experience in people change, across a number of industry sectors, was assigned to the People & Leadership stream. Coaching and ownership transferral to the client were key to the success of this project. The sponsorship of this project was also pivotal, public commitment to the project, and a trust between partners to get the job done.